
In this episode of Scrolling: In this episode of Scrolling: Hayley sits down with “Dream” film writer and actor Ben Pauling to expose the evils of human trafficking, and other dangers for kids in America.
Loading summary
A
Welcome to Scrolling with Haley. I'm Hailey Carania. I cannot wait to introduce you to today's guest. But first, please subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform and tell a friend to listen. Especially because today's topic is so important. But first, I want to tell you about the Helix midnight luxe mattress I've been sleeping on for several months now. And I am obsessed. I used to wake up with lower back pain and toss and turn all night. Plus I'm a hot sleeper and this mattress has fixed all of that. The support is incredible. It keeps me cool and comfortable all night and hel over 20 different mattress models. So you're not guessing you're actually matched to your sleep style. So since switching my sleep tracker shows, I am getting deeper, longer rest and I 100% feel it during the day when I wake up. No grogginess, no aches. Plus with free shipping and a 120 night sleep trial and a limited time warranty and they're happy with Helix guarantee it makes it totally risk free. So go to helix sleep.comhaley for 20% off site wide. That is helix sleep.comhaleyfor 20% off site wide. And make sure to enter the show name at checkout so they know that I sent you. Again, that is helix sleep.com Haley. Well, did you know that a million children go missing in America every year and and 300,000 of them are being sold into sex or labor trade. It is real. It is happening right now in this great country of ours. And that $150 billion industry is unfortunately growing. These are uncomfortable truths that must be shared and must be confronted. How did we get here? Why does it seem like nobody talks about this? And how do we help? My next guest is on a mission to expose the evils of trafficking through his film dream and help victims along the way. The search continues for missing 5 year old Jamie Walker who disappeared at a motocross event last month.
B
Jamie. Jamie. We're going to find her. All right. Saw sticks marking Action Dream is a God led child trafficking rescue movie. You're trying to tell me that God sent you a dream to go break into a warehouse? I hear the cries too. There's something going on in there and we got to find out. At $150 billion, sex trafficking is the fastest growing industry in the world. My daugh is missing. This is gonna be a lion's den and we're gonna need help. More than a film, this is a cry from God's heart. Millions of people have seen the Trailer. But this fight isn't over, and we can't finish it without you. We're calling on believers to give, invest, and stand with us, bringing revival for rescue in every theater across the nation. With your help, we're gonna make a film that forces people to pay attention. You can be a hero that helps this dream come true. Go to Dreamfilm US to donate or invest today. Proceeds from the film will support organizations fighting human tr.
A
Ben Pauling is the writer, director, and actor in the film, and he joins me now. Ben, thank you so much for joining the show.
B
Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Haley. I know it's no small thing, so I appreciate it.
A
Yeah, I. I'm so passionate about this topic and I want to cover it more and I'm very excited to have you on the show because it's so important. And like I said, not a lot of people are talking about it. But you said that this film was. Was inspired by a dream of yours. So what happened in that dream?
B
Yeah. Yeah. It all started with the dream that I'd had six years ago now, August 6, 2020. I was standing at the gate of this industrial warehouse and I was looking into these blacked out windows of what seemed to be just a normal place of business. And I just felt behind those walls were this haunting cry of these children. And I remember waking up from this dream and I went looking for this place. I was. It was one of those dreams where you just. You're convinced that there's something. It just. I had never had a dream like this before where I felt so compelled that there was something real going on here. And I wasn't totally aware of this issue to the depths of what was going on. I was starting to hear more stuff as 2020 was going on. But after I had this, I was compelled that there was a place like this. And I went looking around my hometown. I was searching for this warehouse for my dream, and I ended up never finding the exact place for my dream. But as I was out there, this story just came to me and it just flooded out onto the page and it became what we now have as a feature film that we're working on.
A
And were you passionate about this topic like you said, that you knew that it was going on? Obviously, I think when you have this dream and you start embarking on this process of filmmaking, then you become more aware of it. But did you have any passion about, you know, protecting kids or saving kids or human trafficking before this, or did this all stem from the dream?
B
Well, I Had. Had. Now I've kind of had obviously, my heart open. And because of that dream, I was. I felt like there was a call that was placed on me to do something about it. I felt like God had called me to. To step forward and to use my skill set and my voice to speak on their behalf. But prior to that, it was something that I had heard about, an earshot I'd seen little things about, but I didn't have any real knowledge or a passion for. It was almost something I wasn't even interested in hearing about, really. It was. It was just too dark and it was too heavy to. To think about. But then it just landed on my heart. And as I look back now, there was certain things that I'd been through prior to this dream, not in the specific same circumstance, but I'd struggled with something for about a year where I couldn't sleep. And I remembered how difficult that was for me, being even in a safe environment of a bed and having a home. And I started to think about what it must be like for these kids because of my experience, even just not being able to sleep. And I started thinking about, man, like, that's a whole reality of, like, not just at night, but this is a nightmare that these kids must be living through every day. And then having this dream, I woke up in the middle of the night and I. I just immediately had a heart for them. I had a heart for this issue and wanting to make a difference, make an impact, do something about that.
A
Yeah. So obviously you chose filmmaking. So what got you into filmmaking? Had you been doing this for a while?
B
Yeah, ever Since I was 5, I was into theater acting. Started off as just an actor, and my older brother became proficient behind the camera. My dad was working for reality TV production, and so in 2014, we decided to start our own production company. So my dad left his job at this reality TV production and we started making our own films. We started doing short films, and then we. We would do music videos. And we had set out that we were going to bring impact and change the world through this medium. And it's been a long journey. But this is, I believe, part of what that was all preparing us for was being able to do something not just through film for the sake of telling stories, just because it was our passion, but also to utilize it to bring real impact and change to this world. And I think that is now more of the focus, more so than just filmmaking is how. How can we make a difference?
A
Yeah. And it's. It's refreshing to Hear people in the Hollywood movie making industry that want to protect kids rather than do harm to them. Because children are exploited in so many different ways. And you know, you're shedding light on human trafficking in this film, but kids are exploited in the movie industry and the TV industry and in acting and certain things. So I'm curious your take on that as a former child actor and growing up around this industry, what's your take on that?
B
Yeah, you know, I think about that a lot because there's so many great films. I went recently and saw Stand By Me was in theaters again. That was a classic film that I always enjoyed growing up about these young group of kids. And there's so many great films and great stories and impactful stories. But there's this dark side that always seems to be attached to the making of and what the cost is of the people that are involved, involved in these, these productions and in this industry and in the midst of making this film. I've, we've come across a lot of that and I was almost naive to the degree of how this industry works. Coming into what we're doing now, which is, you know, this is not an entirely small budget film. It's, it's a medium sized budget film that we're working on here. And coming across these different entities and these, these different people that work in this industry, I could see now way more clearly that it's all about, it's, it's, it's fun, it's. The whole impetus is greed. The whole impetus is, you know, image that you're projecting. And the cost is these people's lives and these kids lives and the, now the junk that they're pushing out through, through media, it's gotten even worse. And to the degree it's like, you know, I see what's going on with social media, what's going on with our culture. It's like whatever was going on with these child stars that we saw taking place, it seems like it's happening more and more. And you see the effect, it's now not just in one area, but it's infiltrated every area. And we're seeing it with all these different movements with the gender confusion and all this stuff. And I think it is definitely perpetuated by Hollywood. That's one of the biggest components that is pushing these narratives out there. And yeah, it's, it's unfortunate.
A
Yeah. So I wonder what it's like when you set out to make a film about human trafficking. What's the response from people in the industry Is it easy to make a film on this topic or is it hard to get actors on board? Is it hard to get companies on board to work with you?
B
Yeah, you know, it was interesting because we started off making this and we were, we were going to make it through the industry. What's different about what we're doing here is this has all been grassroots. We've now built a team behind us that is really amazing people that are focused on this mission. But when we first started, we were just going to just do this through Hollywood and we had an A list actor attached. And people were wanting to change stuff. They were wanting to change the aspect of it being about child trafficking to drug trafficking and all the motivation was not about the mission, it was about the money. And it was about, okay, well if this person's attached, then we'll make this movie. Pretty much just paint by numbers industry way of doing things that they do. We got pulled away from that and thankfully, so to keep the integrity of this. And since then I've felt very strongly not to be apart, not to be attached to these industry studios and these different deals that we've had. And I've turned down a lot of money in order to keep the integrity and to make sure that this is not just a film that is speaking about this issue or that this is just a film that is, you know, shedding light, but it actually brings impact through the release of it. And that's something that often you don't get final say on when you're working with this distributor or this production company and in the middle of making it, it's been very difficult, you know, even. Yeah. So we found an audience through everyday people coming behind us to tell this story. Whereas every single door in Hollywood was shut because of this topic. Especially because of Sound of Freedom, because that didn't even come out until 2023.
A
Right.
B
And you know, we started working on this several years earlier. So that was actually deterrent for other people to want to get involved because that was sitting on the shelf and no one wanted to touch that subject. And then when that came out, we didn't go back to those same people. We went to the everyday people that care about this issue. And I believe that that's what maybe the new way of being able to tell stories at this level is just empowering the audience themselves to help bring forward the stories that they want to see in theaters and us working together because these, these companies that are pushing this all out, they're so big and they have so much money. But they're only utilizing it for what their agenda is. And so they're never going to give you the platform or the funds to go out and do. And that's what Angel Studios essentially has done, is they've created their own audience and utilize that audience to choose what projects are going to go forth. And that's just one module. You know, I think that's just kind of a new way that we could, a lot of other people can follow into changing the narrative, changing the industry. And the industry is honestly collapsing right now as it is because there's not a lot of work for people in Hollywood. There's not a lot of films that are being made that aren't, especially now with AI So it's going to get even more so.
A
Well with AI and then it seems like there's no original content anymore. I feel like in Hollywood now it seems like, oh, well, it's the 10 year anniversary since this movie came out or the 50th anniversary since this movie came out. Let's redo it, let's do a reboot, let's do a sequel, let's do a prequel. It's, it's always just recycled content that did well before, which to your point is very enlightening about how much Hollywood cares about money. They see that this certain project had success, we'll redo it with new, hotter, younger actors and, and we'll have, you know, the will pump more money into it and make more money. And it's all very profit based. So you mention of Freedom, which I wanted to talk to you about, because that was the other movie that really kind of hit the mainstream. People were really talking about it and it was shedding light on human trafficking. So did they go about this the Hollywood way or sort of a similar way to what you're doing
B
with Sound of Freedom. They got investment, they got major investment from, from a couple billionaires. They made the picture. I know that, that originally when they were going out to cast it, the producer said that Alejandro Monteverde, he said that, no, it wasn't him, it was, it was the actor that was in it. He was talking about how no one, no agent wanted anything to do with it, wouldn't even bring it to their clients and said, you're gonna have a hard time with it. And that's why they ended up going to Jim Caviezel, right, for that role. And then they made it. And so they did have Disney buy it. They had a couple other companies that it switched hands through and everyone just left it on the shelf. So the reason why it came out when it did was, is because. Which was like, I think three or four years of being on the shelf is because Disney bought it and then they just shelved it. And so once that contract or that period was up, they could. Angel studios could. Could buy it now that they started their own studio. And then they, they crowdfunded the PNA and they released it, which is similar to the approach that we're going to be taking in that part of the aspect. But that's something that I've steered away from because of knowing if this gets in the wrong hands of what we're doing, it, it's, it's. I can't, I can't risk that, that, that it'll be. Yeah, absolutely sabotaged or.
A
Yeah, I think that's really, that's really wonderful that you want to keep the integrity of the film and you don't want to sacrifice anything for money or to get extra help or whatever. I mean, this is really like a crowdfunding project of people who care deeply about children, which I think is hard to find in Hollywood and in California and in the movie industry. So I think what you're doing is, is a great effort and more people should do it. And you are doing a lot on the set. You are writing, directing and acting. Is that true?
B
Yeah.
A
Okay, so what is that like? That's a lot to juggle.
B
Yeah. Well, I have help. My brother is also a co director and he's kind of the mastermind behind the camera. He's also the cinematographer, so he's doing two hats while I'm doing two hats on set. And then we have just an amazing team. You don't do any of this stuff by yourself. And it's taken a lot to put together the team that goes forth and takes your ideas and brings them to life. And it originally just started it all with how we started raising funds was there's a trailer that we had done in 2020. We'd done that in 2021 to get this actor attached, this Academy Award winning actor that ended up dropping out. But we had made a trailer. It was just me, my brother and a sound guy. So my brother behind the camera, me in front of the camera, a couple of the other actors, and we just took certain scenes out of the screenplay and made a teaser trailer and we pitched that around Hollywood and everyone's like, oh my gosh, this is the best teaser trailer we've ever seen. Sizzle trailer. And no one wanted to let us make it us being first time feature filmmakers or they didn't want us to make it and then have this subject be the kind of main thing like have that kind of be like don't really reference that too much because the story itself was a screenplay that has been widely received as a really amazing story, even outside of the fact of this being about this issue. And I think that's, that's something that's resonated with people because when we released that trailer three years after Sitting on just went viral immediately, like within a week, 5 million people saw it, then 10 million people saw it and now I think over 20 million people have seen the trailers.
A
That's incredible.
B
And that's how we started to crowdfund, that's how we started to build an audience was just organic response that people had towards what this vision is and what this dream is. And so tell me about that.
A
What is the. What can viewers expect from the movie? What is it about? Tell me a little without giving too much away, of course, but what can viewers expect from dream?
B
Yeah. This is a story about a young man who goes to this small town race with his little sister and his best friends on a Friday night. And they're out having a good time through the course of the night. His little sister goes missing. She vanishes in the crowd when he's not looking and three years later, she's never found. He wakes up from this dream that he has and he. He's compelled that this dream is from God and it leads him and his friends into breaking into this warehouse in their small town and uncovering this child trafficking ring. Wow. And it's a story that I believe is desperately needed for this time. Not just for this issue, but also for cinema. And I believe this is a story that will resonate and will stay with people long beyond seeing it and also bring impact. Because what we've done is we've set it up to where the funds that we've raised is partially donation. So we've had I think nearly a million dollars of donations that have come in. And those donations, ROI is percentage going towards this fight when it's released. And then we have investors who also will be coming on. They've come on board with that same mindset. But you know, they'll be getting their ROI on their investment. But the biggest thing is at the end of the film, we have Rescue partners now that we've made through a crazy set of circumstances, in the middle of raising funds, in the middle of crowdfunding this and sharing this mission. We were able to be involved in a real rescue that tied us together with one of the most impactful organizations doing work in this issue. They're starting to do a lot more work here in the US and that's Troy Brewer is the head of that organization who now over, I think it's 30 years now, I've rescued 11,000 kids. They have 5,000 kids that they have raised, that are raising right now and they rescue like 908 kids last year, I believe it was. And they don't just rescue. He doesn't, he. No one on the face of the earth and from, from my understanding, does the work in the way that, that he does this work and he's, he's starting to get more recognition now. But he's been in the field, he's been in this work for a long time as a ministry and we partnered with him after I saw a video on this guy who was rescuing this little girl and his dream actually led to her being healed. She was mute, traumatized nine year old little girl from all this stuff that was done to her. And he followed a dream that led him to go into this, this rescue center after his caretaker was his, his, his dream was he was at the rescue center and the little girl ran up to him and he said, I'm your papa, Troy, it's okay for you to start talking now. And she just started talking. Well, he wasn't actually in the area where this was, but he had that dream. So he left his anniversary trip in Florida and flew to where this rescue center was. And it happened just like his dream. Wow. And I had taken this little girl, I saw her face, I saw this video on YouTube. It was kind of, I think it had a decent amount of views. And so I remember giving to his organization and then seeing this picture of this little nine year old girl. And I was just so inspired that I actually wrote a character based off of her in the end of our film. Yeah.
A
I was gonna ask you if the movie was based on a real story because obviously it was inspired by your dream. And then there's this crazy connection that you had a dream that led you to this piece and Troy had a dream that led him to doing work in the same way. It seems almost faded that you guys would come together and work together on this project. And not only that, I saw on your website the story of this little girl who was trafficked more than once, which is so crazy for people to wrap their heads around. I mean, how, how does this happen more than once to the same little girl?
B
Yeah. So totally insane. Like, I just. I just. I still don't even understand how it makes sense, the timing, because I had written about this little girl because I didn't know Troy saw his video on YouTube. So inspired. Write a character, add it to my movie. Wasn't in the. Originally in the script, but I add it to the film. This. This little girl at the end of the film. And one of the kids that. That's in there in the trailer that we. One of the trailers has little girl, you see in the beginning, and that's based off this real little girl, and she was rescued. And I'd had this seven months go by, and I decide I'm going to post this trailer. I've been sitting on this little teaser trailer. I've been sitting on it for two years and nothing's happened. I just felt led. So I posted on accident. Actually, I did it as a screen recording on my phone, and I don't have any following at this point. I don't have anyone looking at our stuff, but I post it just to see if it's going to work. And then I go to church, and when I get out, like, I think 200, 300,000 people had seen it. And it just kept going and going and going. And during that week after that happened, we connected with Troy among a bunch of other people in this. This work in this field. And we were telling him what our intention was, is that we're starting to get stuff moving on this film, and we've been following your work, and we want to somehow use this to help fund your rescues. And he was like, that's awesome. He's a huge movie person, movie buff. And he tells us, though, he's got something that he's dealing with right now that's really heavy. And they're all really just horrified over which is one of his caretakers in this rescue center that he has was shot by the cartel. And they dragged this little girl that he had rescued seven months earlier out of the rescue center. And then we hear who this little girl's name was, and it was the same little girl that I wrote about. And they have. They have 5,000 kids in there all over in these different rescue centers. Out of all the kids this happened to in the very week that we connected with them, it happened to be the same little girl that I'd written about. And so we actually, you know, my brother, while he's on the phone with me, said, I'm gonna make you promise that I'm gonna Try to do everything I can. And we're gonna get that little girl back. I don't know how, but we had contacts now because of our trailer going viral with some ex military special ops type guys that work with Tim Tebow and, you know, the Tim Ballard. And we connected those two different groups and together they figured out where she was. She was sold twice after that. And they were gonna go scorch the earth and go in there and rip her out through violence. But it ended up leading to a different way of getting her out that didn't involve that, which was just totally insane. Longer story. But she ended up getting rescued for the second time on her 10th birthday. And we just locked arms after that. And he became a producer and investor on the film. We started sharing this story and we started sharing the mission and the film and people started getting behind it. It's now been in production for a couple years because it's just been. It's been an uphill battle and it's been obviously not compromising. It's been an uphill battle to finish. And so we're still in the process of. Of finishing this thing.
A
How much longer do you think you have to work on the film before it comes out?
B
We're hoping to have a final product by the end of the year. And, you know, we're still raising funds for some of the production. So we definitely need more help of rallying people, rallying around that to be able to do that. And then in the release of it, I feel very strongly that we can also crowdfund. And that's the thing about nowadays is everything was a monopoly in the theaters before, but now a lot of people are like angel studios and different people are finding that they can distribute and go directly with the exhibitors to releasing films in theaters. And so that's another leg of what our goal is because we've kind of assessed an audience and we have access to different bases and platforms, doing a strategic release for this film throughout the nation and then hopefully also internationally in theaters through continued efforts of crowdfunding and funding that and then using that so that that huge cut that usually goes towards a monopoly of a Amazon or a monopoly of a bigger distributor, which they usually take around 50. A lot of people don't realize that when a movie makes, let's just say, $300 million, like Sound of Freedom did, the distributors take 40 to 50% of that. And so we want to make sure that we're able to make as much of an impact and make as much of a financial assistance to this cause and also the integrity of releasing it, that we've crowdfunded the production ourselves. We can crowdfund the distribution ourselves and work directly with exhibitors to get this out there and let this be the first of many.
A
Well, I definitely have faith that you can do that. And what's fascinating is the interest in this topic in this country right now. I mean, people are talking about protecting kids a lot more right now. It's sort of a hot topic. But unfortunately, the sex trafficking industry is a growing industry in here. The US Is the largest consumer of this kind of content. Why do you think that is? Why is the US the largest consumer of child exploitation material?
B
Yeah, that's a great question as to why. I know that it is. I know that it is. I know that 39% of even child sacrifice that takes place in the world is from Americans. And I know that because of one of our actors is great friends with Tim Tebow. And he got to go behind the veil into seeing the work that they're doing. And Tim Tebow's got one of the biggest organizations doing this work. And he got to see images, he got to see things that he wanted. He put himself in that place of seeing. I didn't ask him to do that. But he's. He's a well known, very like, intense person in his own own right. And he put himself into choosing to subject himself to knowing exactly what this is. And you know, it is Americans. And that's something that he came away with was and something he had to do under police supervision to see the work that here's the cases we're working on, here's the things. And it's one thing hearing about it, but from his perspective. And he told me, and me even just hearing about it, he's like, I thought I knew what was going on, but you don't have any idea what's going on when you see it. It's a different thing. And that's not something that no one really wants to see. And I don't think a lot of people should see. Most people should never see. Can handle that. But with a film like this, we're not showing that what we're doing is we're revealing God's heart for these kids, you know, because we don't need to, you know, view darkness to be able to go in and make a difference. We need to be able to see the light and we need to be able to bring light and hope to these kids. And I think there's a lot to be learned from these children about not giving up, about enduring darkness. And that's the American spirit really that started this country. And no matter how evil it's gotten and how pervasive it's gotten in our country, yes it is, it is our people that are here. But there's also the opportunity that we have as Americans to change that. And I think that's not an opportunity that's as available in other countries. The power that we hold as everyday people is tremendous compared to what other people have access to actually making a difference that are in these third world countries. And I'm confident and I'm hopeful that that will change.
A
Yeah. Well, you're doing amazing work. So I want you to be able to plug your website so people can find out more about the film and keep up with you keep up with when it comes out and certainly can help hopefully get this film distributed. So last minute plug for where people can find more about Dream.
B
Yeah, you can go to Dreamfilm Us. You can donate or invest or also if you're interested in figuring out and being notified when this film is released to reserve a seat and it'll pop up to where you can plug in your information where you're at and it'll be notify you when there's a screening nearby you. But yeah, and just thank you guys for the support and the prayers. Thank you Haley for having me on here. And also you can come to the website Dreamfilm Us to watch the trailer and follow along with us on this journey as we're making this.
A
Absolutely. And I encourage everyone watching to go do that because the trailer is incredible. I know that the movie is going to be even more incredible and impactful and there's nothing more important than the work you're doing. So thank you so much for being here. I appreciate the conversation. I for one I'm super excited for this dream movie to come out. I cannot wait to see it. I loved the Sound of Freedom when it came out. Of course the liberals were all they were saying that it was a conspiracy theory. That was just another one of those right wing conspiracy theories. Right. Well, I can tell you that human trafficking is not a conspiracy theory. It is real. It is happening to children right now in this country. So the more hands on deck that we can get together to save these kids, the better. So thank you for watching this episode. You can catch more rumble.com Haley will bring you to Gino Report Channel. That's where you can subscribe. Of course you can watch on Spotify and listen on your favorite podcast platforms. And I'll see you right back here next time. Thanks.
B
It. Stay here. I'm gonna go. Cutie. Jamie. Jamie. We're going to find her, all right? Trust me. My daughter is missing.
A
The search continues for missing 5 year old Jamie Walker, who disappeared at a motocross event last month. FBI and local authorities say new leads are starting to dwindle and there's growing scrutiny amongst the community on the family's possible negligence as she was last seen with her brother and friends. Despite that, the family is cooperating closely with officials and they remain hopeful. The reward for Jamie is now at $75,000.
B
I had a dream last. It happened. All of it. Even the screen. This guy's got something going on in there. You think he might have Jamie? So we go to the cops. It'll be too late by then. You're trying to tell me that God sent you a dream to go break into a warehouse? There's something going on in there and we gotta find out. And we're gonna need help. If Ray's right, this is gonna be a lion's den. A lot of ways this could go wrong. What about you, Mike? You wanna sell me this time? You got two strikes. You shouldn't be doing this. What if there's somebody in there? I hear the cries too. Evil tries to bury it, but it can't. Something's waiting for. For you. More than you dreamed. Sam. Vince Colonnades is redefining News Talk. I'm Vince Colonnade, host of the Vince Podcast. I'm bringing you the truth beneath the headlines of all of the nation's top stories. In depth interviews. We feature newsmaking interviews with the top guests on the whole planet. And I'll ask the questions you only dream of other interviewers asking. And if you. Front row seat to the most important
A
conversations of the day.
B
It's a show with an obsessive focus on what's good for America. You are going to love Vince the Vince Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
Host: Hayley Caronia
Guest: Ben Pauling (Writer, Director, Actor – “Dream”)
Date: April 9, 2026
In this powerful episode of Scrolling with Hayley, host Hayley Caronia sits down with filmmaker Ben Pauling to discuss the urgent, underreported crisis of child trafficking in America. Through the lens of Ben’s upcoming feature film “Dream” – inspired by a vivid, life-changing dream and rooted in real-world rescue efforts – they delve into the realities of exploitation, the unique challenges of telling these stories in Hollywood, and the grassroots movement empowering everyday people to make a difference. With a bold, impassioned tone, Hayley and Ben confront uncomfortable truths, challenge the entertainment industry’s complicity, and invite listeners into direct action.
Hayley leads with shocking statistics highlighting the magnitude of the crisis:
The urgency and gravity of the epidemic is underscored throughout the episode, with both host and guest calling for broader public awareness and direct action.
Ben shares the origin of the film, tracing it back to an unforgettable dream that set his life on a new trajectory:
The experience transformed his heart and provided a sense of divine calling:
Hayley and Ben discuss Hollywood’s exploitation of children, not just in trafficking, but also in the pressures and abuses faced by child actors.
Ben, once a child actor himself, reflects on industry greed and image obsession:
Challenges in making “Dream” through mainstream channels:
The project pivots to a grassroots, community-supported model and finds resonance with ordinary people passionate about rescuing children, echoing the distribution path used by “Sound of Freedom”.
Ben outlines the film’s premise, inspired by both his dream and true stories from the field:
Groundbreaking partnership with Troy Brewer’s rescue ministry:
Hayley asks why the US consumes the most child exploitation content.
Ben’s blunt response:
He contrasts darkness with the potential for American action and cultural transformation:
On the Hollywood system:
“It was about the money. …Every single door in Hollywood was shut because of this topic.” – Ben (10:25)
On impact through film:
“We don’t need to, you know, view darkness to be able to go in and make a difference. We need to… bring light and hope to these kids.” – Ben (29:04)
On faith and mission:
“God sent you a dream to go break into a warehouse?” – Line from the film’s trailer (35:25)
Hayley’s closing rallying cry:
“Human trafficking is not a conspiracy theory. It is real. It is happening to children right now in this country. So the more hands on deck that we can get together to save these kids, the better.” (32:26)
The episode is direct, passionate, and unflinching—combining hard data, personal testimony, faith, and a challenge to mainstream narratives. Both Hayley and Ben stress the importance of not looking away and encourage listeners (and viewers) to get involved both by supporting “Dream” and its partnered rescue organizations. The conversation is hopeful about the power of grassroots, community-driven change and uncompromising in exposing the failures of institutions.